Essential Japanese Kanji Volume 1: Learn the Essential Kanji Characters Needed for Everyday Interactions in Japan (JLPT Level N5)

Received my copy today. (I do wish Amazon would label softcovered books as such so they aren't bent and shoved into mailboxes) So far, I am very pleased with it. Explanations are clear and concise. Lessons dive right in, so make sure you know your kana first. The vocab section can help you muddle through if needed, but you'll find it easier if you already know the kana. To help you, there is a handy and complete table in the early pages of the book.Essential Japanese Kanji Vol 1 is complete in the sense that it doesn't require the use or purchase of other books. It provides tables of relevant information. The quizzes have the answers in the back. It even talks about the kanji radicals.If you are an Anki user, there is plenty of information for you to populate a thorough deck for yourself from the contents.

I wish they had the quiz pages after the vocabulary and the vocabulary after the kanji lessons. It seems kind of backwards to try to use something in a complex situation you haven't even learned yet, then learn words that branch from the kanji you are ABOUT to learn, and then learn the kanji. I also would have liked if there was a sheet in the back of just blank boxes, that could be scanned and copied for later practice. I find the practice at the end of each lesson and the pictorial and/or origin guides helpful in memorizing kanji. It is just very discouraging/overwhelming when you each lesson begins with a quiz where you have no clue what to write. By the way, the answers are on page 226-228 for the quizzes and exams. Don't cheat! But good to have when you aren't sure, or when you need to "grade" yourself.You will need to know Kana and basic Japanese grammar, or else this will be even more confusing, especially on the quizzes and practices.

The pedagogical design of the material makes this text engaging and enjoyable. The material builds well upon previous lessons while well-crafted and interesting repetition provides ample opportunity to build recognition and enhance recall. Exercises range from easy to challenging in each section. Much care and thought went into this book.

I have to second one of the other reviewers - do NOT buy the Kindle edition. Not only does kanji text break up over lines (i.e., does not fit properly on the page), I noticed a consistent misapplication of " making for improper readings of many hiragana (e.g., DA instead of TA, GA instead of KA, etc). This last is truly annoying as I have to look at romaji to figure out if the author really does mean DA instead of TA.Another minor annoyance is the use of elongated O instead OU to represent OU hiragana combo...basically I have to switch between looking at Hiragana and Romaji to puzzle out the actual sound/reading of a kanji.However, I have to also say that this is a great book to help one get acclimated with Kanji in common use. I wish I came across it during my life in Tokyo - would've helped me in reading and writing Emails and less reliant on friends.

Great for learning Japanese on your own.

This book itself is great, but don't waste your money on the Kindle edition. I'm using a new (at this time) Kindle Fire HD 8.9, on the Kindle the tables and other important charts lose their formating and I'm spending most of my important study-time trying to figure out what's written in this book instead of actually learning anything and my grades have taken a hit as a result.

Great product! Highly recommend to any student of Japanese langauge!

Great textbook and the organization makes the characters easy to understand.

Interesting and well laid out, thought through, and with carefully structured chapters, this well-illustrated book provides essential Kanji, especially for a young student wanting to get around Japan and understand the basic written language. It is an accessible, carefully planned book, which includes 'romaji' translations (that is, the Europeanised written forms of Japanese, focussing on learning to recognise signs and everyday language such as buying tickets and travelling in Japan, going to the bank or coping with being a student at a Japanese university.However, for the casual student e.g. me, as a retired person interested in japanese for its own sake, the culture and people, as well as language, and studying for pleasure, this book is a little daunting and races along with the speed of the young.So I recommend this book for younger students i.e. the 18-30 age range and certainly anyone living in Japan, but not for anyone studying Japanese simply for interest.

I've started using this book as recommended by my Japanese teacher. It's great! I've only learnt about 30 characters but it's really useful. They teach you the Kanji and ask you to work out sentences of everyday Kanji use in ie, timetables or excursions. I hope to learn all 450 characters in this book before I go to Japan in September 2017. I may not learn all 2000 Kanji characters before September but this book teaches you the most useful ones. It's a start!

This is a review for the Kindle edition. Not all of the kanji turn up properly and some don't even show at all. Also the diagrams of the kanji are very blurry and you cannot zoom in to look at the details because it's too blurry. The book is quite useless as a Kindle edition. I will be getting it as a physical copy instead.

Excellent book - the best I have bought so far to learn Kanji as it gives visual memory aids to remembering and recognising the characters. Large clear illustrations and stroke order with room to practice.

Not only does this book teach the Kanji and example words but it also gives a lot of example sentences to help you understand how the Kanji are used in everyday written texts.